Hearle 1

Fern Hearle

Professor Laura

GEOG 1000

12/11/18

Disaster In The Movies

The San Andreas fault movie was based on the future natural disaster event of the San

Andreas Fault. It was related to it in ways of how a huge earthquake will split California in half

at the fault, and that the earthquake was shown to do a catastrophic amount of damage. The

disaster started out as a theory between two scientist that suspected a massive earthquake, but

could not be for sure until they traveled to the hoover dam to detect an earthquake they predicted

in their theorised sequence of events. This moved the story forward leading to multiple other

earthquakes that became bigger with time, and traveled up the fault to San Francisco. Once there

was multiple pulses of the earthquake, a huge tsunami followed after. They measured this

earthquake magnitude as a 9.6 on the richter scale. But according to “How Damaging” the

earthquake would start at around and 8.0 magnitude, and every region it traveled up, it would

lower on the scale. Stating that this would be much more probable than one huge earthquake

affecting the entire state.

The San andreas fault is part of a transform boundary, located on the Pacific and North

American tectonic plate. The boundary is always sliding and moving around, but slowly -“a

couple of inches a year” (The San Andreas Fault). Because these plates are constantly pushing

against each other, the built-up tension will break the rock along the fault and the plate will slide

against each other in an abrupt motion, distancing a couple of feet; sending P-waves and S-waves

through the state, known as an earthquake (The San Andreas Fault). The movie depicted this
 Hearle 2

mediocre from personal opinion. They showed the earthquake happening within seconds of the

scientist finding out the data. Which meant absolutely no warning to the citizens of California,

when in reality, there would be a far better warning. The earthquake then traveled up the fault

and ultimately affected the entire state at once, worsening by the minute. And lastly, a tsunami

hitting the coast and flooding the state, when Japan would be a bigger threat for a tsunami, rather

than California.

The direct effects portrayed in the movie would be the San Andreas fault splitting in two,

massive destruction to the cities, the tsunami and deaths. The indirects on the other hand would

be mourning, and repair. But to avoid a lot casualties, the government can warn citizens before

an earthquake. Not all earthquakes are predictable, but there are tools used to determine the

closest guess. Like a seismograph, satellites, and accelerometers (Earthquake Emergency

Procedures). All of this information can be processed through the government to warn the people

to prepare. But it also can be tough, because telling everyone to evacuate and nothing happens

will soon turn into a crying wolf situation and when a real earthquake is about to destruct its

area, no one will care because they don’t think it will actually happen. So if there is an quake

coming, scientists and the government have to be positive, but by then there isn’t much time to

prepare and/or get out of the area. But once the earthquake happens, the long term effects will

last longer than the actual event. Globally it will ultimately be impacted by the flooding causing

liquefaction. infrastructure destruction that will never be rebuilt, paramedics searching for

survivors, lack of food, clean water, and electricity. Some people will never get their families or

homes back. Natural disasters are just that, a disaster, and hopefully in the future we will have

better resources in predicting them to avoid as many casualties as possible.

WORKS CITED:
 Hearle 3

“The San Andreas Fault” David K. Lynch. 2013. https://geology.com/articles/san-andreas-

fault.shtml

“How Damaging Would A Major Earthquake Be For San Francisco And Los Angeles?” Jeremy

Hobson. 2017.

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/09/19/major-earthquake-san-francisco-

los-angeles

“Earthquake Emergency Procedures” Pablo Lacayo. 2013.

https://sites.google.com/a/ans.edu.ni/earthquake-emergency-pr/tools-that-help-

predict-and-measure-earthquakes